When the Beck family arrived at CrossFit Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina, they were an unhealthy bunch. Jeff Beck had gained weight from skipping workouts. His father, Rickey, had a series of injuries and brain surgery. And his mother, Pam, eventually had 30 inches of her intestine removed.

“They all joined at the same time,” says owner Karen Candia. “They got in here and they just went full force.”

Today, all three—as well as Jeff’s wife, Courtney—are coaches at the affiliate. The younger couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Camden, also CrossFits.

“I think it really has helped bring us together as a family,” Pam Beck says.

Courtney Beck agrees.

“We care about each other, and we know that CrossFit and Paleo Diet, eating clean, is good for us,” she says. “Just being here and encouraging each other, we know that by doing CrossFit and gettin’ healthy we’ll hopefully be able to spend a lot more years together as a family.”

The CrossFit Journal is a chronicle of the empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed CrossFit program. Our mission is to provide a venue for contributing coaches, trainers, athletes, and researchers to ponder, study, debate, and define fitness and collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.